The Needle's Eye

A really annoying sermon today.

The reading was:

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up,
knelt down before him, and asked him,
“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good?
No one is good but God alone.
You know the commandments: You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
you shall not defraud;
honor your father and your mother.”
He replied and said to him,
“Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.”
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him,
“You are lacking in one thing.
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
At that statement his face fell,
and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,
“How hard it is for those who have wealth
to enter the kingdom of God!”
The disciples were amazed at his words.
So Jesus again said to them in reply,
“Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,
“Then who can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said,
“For human beings it is impossible, but not for God.
All things are possible for God.”

 (Mark 10: 17-27).

The priest immediately trotted out that disgusting old saw that Jesus was actually referring to a gate in Jreusalem called “the needle's eye,” which it was difficult to get a camel through. But heavens, no, not impossible. We can all do it, with a little effort.

So it's all okay, rich people. Relax. Camels can pass through a needle's eye, and you will no doubt get to heaven. Jesus didn't really mean what he said.

This is bollocks on several grounds.

To begin with, there is no good evidence that there ever was such a gate in Jerusalem.

Second, the same image is used several times in the Talmud, and it just does not sound as though they all refer to some city gate. For example, the rabbis argue that dreams are rational by pointing out that “They do not show a man a palm tree of gold, nor an elephant going through the eye of a needle.” This would make no sense if it were indeed possible for an elephant, with effort, to go through the eye of a needle.

It was, in fact, an established idiom to refer to something as being impossible.

Most importantly, in the Gospel itself, Jesus says in so many words that he just described something impossible.

Jesus looked at them and said,
“For human beings it is impossible.”

So you, a priest, really want to call him a liar?

Next issue: does this mean Jeus is telling the rich they have to give their money away or go to Hell?

You hear that one too. Political leftists love to cite it. The rich are evil.

No, he is not. Read that passage again. A man comes up to Jesus and asks what he needs to do to inherit eternal life; at the same time, he calls Jesus “good teacher.” Jesus's response is that nobody is good except God.

Jesus then lists the Ten Commandments. The clear implication is that they are sufficient in order to inherit eternal life. He goes on only when pressed; the man is not satisfied. He wants more. He apparently also wants to be told that he is “good.”

What follows, with the camel and the needle's eye, is an illustration of Jesus's initial point, that no one is authentically good except God.

The idea is not that we should give everything we have to the poor; Jesus actually assumes we are not likely to do that. It is to acknowledge that we are not good. We must never think of ourselves as righteous or justified; we could always do more. We could, for example, give everything that we have to the poor. Insisting on being thought of as, and thinking of himself as, righteous, is where the man is lacking, not in the fact of being rich.

Jesus actually concludes by saying it is impossible for ANYONE to be saved, not just the rich, without the help of God.

To need God is to be saved. Not to need God is to be damned. Everything else is just about working out the implications.